About Convergence
By Changing Ourselves, We Change The World
Convergence is an intimate, family-friendly festival. It runs every year from 28 December to 3 January at Journey’s End Campground, in the countryside just north of Christchurch, New Zealand. It’s a co-created event — everyone who attends is part of making it happen.
It’s an inclusive gathering of people of all ages, beliefs and backgrounds. The event is alcohol and drug free, and the site is dog free. Vegetarian or vegan food is provided for lunch and dinner. The site has two large grassed camping areas for tents, campervans and house trucks, and limited bunkroom accommodation. There are warm indoor spaces, showers, toilets, hot water, and dishwashing facilities. It’s a great place to camp no matter the weather.
No money changes hands during Convergence. Lunches, dinners and all workshops are included in the ticket price. Participants offer free workshops — in past years that’s included massage, healing, yoga, arts and crafts, meditation, relationships, song, dance, and much much more. You can also learn vegetarian and vegan cooking alongside fellow attendees during daily meal preparation.
Beyond workshops, Convergence offers swimming holes in the river, moonlit baths, sauna, live music, jamming, drumming, cabaret, New Year celebrations, a nurture space, a relaxed hang-out zone, a creative kids’ space, spirituality, candlelight sharing, and community.
Bring yourself. Bring your experience. Bring your sense of fun, your passion, your creativity and share it with everyone. Experience what it means to create a heart-based living community.
What Previous Attendees Loved
Convergence works on the principals of “follow your bliss,” acceptance and caring for the other, self responsibility, and collective creation. Some people do less — some do more.
The magic happens when people offer unexpected talents: leading a choir, setting up a “No Thing” space, divining your personal expression, exercising mindfulness or nature appreciation, offering a sound healing workshop, creating a group for pre-teenage boys, home-made icecream.
We offer a space for humanity’s best — for people to give something a go, try it out and finetune it, give it their best shot with support, do what they’ve always wanted to do — sunbathe nude, play in the mud, construct a sacred space, scream in the forest, try a unicycle, massage a stranger, sing in front of lots of people, manage an event… as boundless and creative as humanity can be in an accepting environment.
Our Principles
Convergence embodies 9 principles:
Community
Co-creation
Respectful engagement
Sustainability
Mindfulness
Participation
Self-responsibility
Healing
Personal growth
A Forty Year History
Convergence began in January 1986 and was originally called Towards 2000. The founding group wrote the following words regarding their intention for the event.
“The Towards 2000 Festival is not out to promote particular styles of living or specific values. The people who form the cooperative come from many different areas of Christchurch community and we are reaching out to everyone who wants New Zealand to be a healthy, peaceful place to live.
It is without doubt if we do not change direction we will end up where we are headed. At present where we are headed looks grim. In the face of starvation and wars that persist all over the world, the violence in our cities, the poisons collecting in our environment and even the anger in our personal relationships; most people feel despairing and powerless to help.
The vision that inspires Towards 2000 is that we can change the present situation. We can live meaningful, joyful lives in a supportive creative community. The purpose of Towards 2000 is to begin these changes now with the goal of peace and a positive social environment for everyone.”
Significant Past Events
Not another music festival — Towards 2000 began as a spin off from the White Cliff’s Music Festival. The intention was to move away from a pure music festival to a festival that encompassed a variety of different things including workshops, communal meals and community based living.
Beginnings— The first Convergence was held in 1986 at Whitecliffs with a small group of people who gathered for the event. The event has run every year since then except one. One year Convergence did not happen, but a group of four family’s met on the site for a picnic which they gave the nick name the Teddy Bears Picnic. For two years during the Covid-19 pandemic no official Convergence event was organised, but a small group of people that had attended events in the past gathered to celebrate the New Year as usual.
Tokotoko — The Tokotoko is the talking stick of Convergence and was gifted to Convergence. The name of the Talking stick is “Te puna aroha ki te ao hou” translated as “The spring of love flowing to the new world”.
Journey’s End — After a very wet year at Whitecliffs, with water up to the knees and mud everywhere it was decided to look for another site for Convergence. Cooking in a marquee was very tough in those conditions. The site at Journeys End was found and the first Convergence was held on its current site in 1994. The site was quite different to what it is today,with far less buildings and amenities and also far less open spaces for camping. But it was better than cooking in a tent.
2000 What’s Next — With the original name of Towards 2000, now called Convergence 2000, with the world in a panic over “Y2K”, there was a large turnout for the Convergence event in 2000. Over 600 people were in attendance, and this was the largest Convergence ever. There was a lot of discussion as to what happens next, and the 2000 was dropped from the name and Convergence continued.
Legal Entity — To meet the legal requirements any organisation is required to adhere to an incorporated society was formed. It proved extremely difficult to fit Convergence into this framework and it was eventually closed down and the Convergence NZ Trust was formed to provide a legal structure for the festival. The Trustees do not run the event, but have a role to ensure the ongoing future of Convergence.
Leaderless — Like most organisations Convergence started out with a keen group of people who organised the event. They made the decisions on what would happen and kept an eye on what was going on during Convergence. After a very large “heartbeat” group ran the event, the next year this structure disappeared. And since that time Convergence is run by everyone and no one. There is no structured leadership and every attendee is encouraged to take responsibility for their own experience. This provides space for people to step into leadership roles in their area of interest or expertise.
This is an ongoing and interesting experience, making Convergence very unique in the world of festivals and adding to the rich diversity of the event.
Participation
Convergence is a co-created event. You’re not an audience — and you’re not only a participant — you’re a co-creator. The richness of each gathering comes from what everyone brings: different skills, different passions, different ways of showing up. No two years are the same.
Workshops
Workshops are offered during Convergence at no cost to any attendee. These offer the opportunity for personal and or spiritual growth. To facilitate a workshop it is enough to have a significant interest or experience in the topic you bring to Convergence. You do not have to be a relationship counsellor to facilitate a discussion on relationships, but you could lead a discussion, or find someone who does have experience to run the workshop with you.
The workshops on offer each year will vary as these are run by the participants of the event. Bring along what you have to share. A wide variety of workshops have been run in the past including:
- Talking Circles: Men’s Circle, Women’s Circle and The Circle
- Spiritual: Meditation, Shamanic Journey, Chanelling, Energy Healing
- Music: Harp, Piano, Ukelele, Singing, Chanting
- Bodywork: Massage, Pulsing, Reiki, Yoga
- Dance: Five Rhythms, Jive, Hiphop, Free dance, Biodanza
- Practical: Weed walks, Table making, Weaving, Tiny homes
- Fun: Mud people, Water fights, Playshops, Circus skills
- Children: Carving, Face painting, Nail painting
- Eco: Earth housing, Community building, Composting, Recycling
Workshop Facilitators
Prepare a structure or topic ahead of time and post an outline of the workshop in the Networking tent. Someone will usually be available to coordinate workshops and the locations of these. There is always space for spontaneous workshops, under a tree if all the other spaces are being used. You will have the opportunity to stand up and announce your workshop to the whole group. Prepare a few a words or actions that demonstrate what you will be covering in the workshop.
At the beginning of the workshop make it clear what the workshop is about, what you are going to do within it and give people who are not feeling comfortable with this the opportunity to leave then.
If appropriate get participants agreement on confidentiality — what is shared in the workshop stays within the boundaries of the workshop. Encourage participation but don’t insist on it or enforce it — allow people the safety to say ‘no’, and use their free will.
Provide and assure physical and emotional safety within the workshop. Only facilitate touch which is comfortable, safe and appropriate for the focus of the workshop. e.g. a massage workshop may require removing some clothing, but a relationship discussion probably doesn’t.
Encourage participants to be responsible for what they are feeling, and say what they want and what they do not want.
Be responsible for what happens in the workshop, including following up with any people afterwards if necessary.
Funds of up to $200 are available for materials required for the workshop. Please contact us for details.
Event Outline
At the start (27-28 Dec)
Arrival day is 27 December. After the Opening Ceremony on the morning of 28 December, everyone is invited to help set up the site together — marquees go up, the kitchen gets organised, the nurture space, children’s space, and sacred space are created.
Helping set up is a great way to land and meet people and feel your own investment in the festival. Connections are made through completing tasks together.
For those that can arrive early on 26th or 27th December, we will be looking for people to welcome everyone to Convergence at Welcome tent when they arrive (checking tickets and giving everyone the opportunity to choose their own unique Convergence pendant).
During the event (28 Dec – 3 Jan)
During the event, there’s a wide range of groups to join, from chapel decorators to New Year celebration planners, and everything in between.
Everyone’s welcome to offer a workshop — something you know, love, or want to explore. Up to $200 is available for materials; contact us before the event for details.
Workshops are offered during Convergence at no cost to any attendee. You don’t need to be an expert to facilitate one — a genuine interest or lived experience is enough.
To facilitate a workshop, prepare a loose structure and post a description in available Information areas.
At the end (3 Jan onwards)
A morning circle on 3 January kicks off the pack-down together. All equipment is cleaned, marquees dropped, hire gear checked and stacked, and Convergence items packed into labelled boxes for storage, leftover food is dispersed.
While the event finishes on 3 January, participant are welcome to stay until noon on 5 January. For some this is the sweet spot of our gathering.